Childless couples have shorter lifespan than parents

A recent study has shown that having children can lengthen your life and women that are not mothers are at a higher health risk. A Danish study mentions that an early death rate in men is cut by half if they had children as well.

The study was conducted by researchers from Aarhus University which had studied more than 21,000 couples having IVF treatment between the year 1994 and 2005. During that time about 15,210 children were born and 1564 children were adopted. Moreover, 96 women and 200 men died.

The research was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, which showed that there is no difference in psychiatric illness in couples if they were childless or not. On the other hand, those who were adopted had fewer mental health problems due to the health screening of adoptive parents.

It was observed that the early death rate from circulatory disease, accidents, cancers and among childless women was four times higher than among those who gave birth to their own child and it was 50 percent lower among women who adopted them. The research paper mentioned that rates of psychiatric illness does not appear to vary with childlessness but the rate of psychiatric illness on parents who adopt is decreased.